The following article is one I recently shared with our teaching staff of Artios Academies around the country. I think it will bless you as well, in your “classroom” at home…where we attempt to not do school at home, but rather to truly homeschool.

Exasperation or Exuberance

Often my own teaching reminds me of one of my own childhood classroom experiences. This year has been no exception. Although each of us has our own teaching styles and personalities, there are some threads that run consistent through every classroom, for every teacher and for every generation.
When I was in kindergarten, I LOVED school. I couldn’t wait to go to school each morning. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cassidy, was amazing. She was older. Looking back, she must have been in her sixties at least but her love for teaching and young children was evident by every creative opportunity she provided us, by her energy and enthusiasm for teaching, and her individualized approach to every student. Now, you may or may not know me very well, but I think if we had an opportunity to be together for very long, you could easily imagine that I was quite a handful in the classroom. I was energetic, highly physical, very vocal, and VERY enthusiastic about everything. However, I wasn’t mean, or rebellious, or disobedient and when I received a report card that year from Mrs. Cassidy, she described me as “exuberant.” I will ALWAYS remember that description. She helped to harness and direct all the excitement and energy into a love for school and a love for learning.
The following year I moved on to first grade and had a first grade teacher named Mrs. Russell. I also remember her vividly but for different reasons. In Mrs. Russell’s class being energetic, highly physical, very vocal and VERY enthusiastic was NOT considered a good thing. I was constantly told to settle down, be still, and to focus. All very reasonable requests, but I was told this no matter WHAT activity we were doing in class and I was never directed or shown how to focus my energy and excitement as I had been the year before. Instead of looking forward to school every day, I began to be nervous, apprehensive and even to experience stomachaches when even the thought of school came up in conversation. At the end of the year, I assure you that Mrs. Russell did not describe me as “exuberant” but rather as a child that needed to learn how to “settle down” and excuse me for describing her thoughts like this, but honestly, she wanted me to “settle down” into HER box. There was no room for my individuality or creative expression. There was no guidance on how to take all that energy and focus it positively….there was only negative comments and exasperation from Mrs. Russell and that came through loud and clear to me and to my parents.
Through the years, God seems to have always brought at least one teacher or adult into my life that saw in me EXUBERANCE and not EXASPERATION. God would give insight into that teacher and help them to guide me to use all that pent up excitement and energy into the activity or project at hand. They would allow me opportunities to lead, to make decisions, to express myself and that gave me great confidence and comfort in becoming the person that God had created me to be.
So, why am I sharing this with you at the beginning of the school year? Well, by now, you have probably identified your “exuberant” kids. I hope that you have given them the description of exuberant and not exasperating. Now, don’t get me wrong, kids do need to learn how to control themselves, how to act in group settings, and how to participate in a class without being distracting. However, you know as well as I do that we as teachers can either help and guide them to learn those skills positively or we can do it negatively.
We all teach within the Artios Academies program. By its very nature of being a program for homeschoolers AND a program that works in the areas of creative expression, I can assure you that our percentage of EXUBERANT kids will be higher than in the traditional classroom setting. However, think of it this way, in a day and age when people lack passion and commitment to the things they believe in and love, we have the opportunity to take these children and give them ways of using their innate passion for various areas and focusing it to make a difference in the world. What an honor and a privilege AND an opportunity we have to make a difference for generations to come.
For describing me as exuberant, I will be forever grateful to you Mrs. Cassidy!
Faith and Courage,

Lori Lane

We traveled down to Monument on Monday of this week to participate in the new Artios Academies of Monument program. It’s been three years since we have been a part of an Artios program since moving away from the Atlanta area and it was time for us to become involved in the closest one to us out here…and that just happens to be Monument which is about two hours away from our home.

You might ask why I’m willing to make that drive 28 times during the school year. Well, I bet I can answer it with one simple word: Community! I don’t know whether it’s because I live out of town, in between two towns, in a rural area, or just in an area of independent people, but finding community for myself as a woman, homeschooler and mother has been even more difficult than finding community for the boys who have integrated easily into scouts, sports etc. However, with my set of interests and my desire to teach other students, as well as my responsibilities within Artios and to the boys, and living out of town, its been harder for me to find community. Don’t get me wrong….I have some lovely and wonderful friends, but I miss the community I found when I taught together with ladies who loved some of the same areas of education that I did. So that being said, the boys and I are driving to Monument for some more chances at building community.

This past week was our first week at this new Artios. I have to tell you I was NOT disappointed. We had a wonderful day with other students, teachers and parents and I LOVED being back in the classroom and teaching: Intro to Music, Worldview One, Intro to Literary Arts and Senior Chorale. I LOVED every minute of it and the drive back and forth was filled with time for listening to our literature reading assignments and history reading assignments on CD. Our whole day was immersed in the Early Modern Time Period and instead of waking up on Tuesday morning exhausted from Monday’s drive and classes, I woke up refreshed and excited about the rest of the week. Being together with a community was encouraging, refreshing, and yes, even exhilerating.

This next week, we start Artios Lite in our small town and I’m hoping and praying for the same feeling I got last Monday in Monument. I hope that I will once again feel a part of yet another community. I’ve learned over the years, that to feel a part of something, I need to GIVE to that “something”, so, that’s what I’m trying to do.

Some of you may not relate to what I’m talking about when I talk about my desire to find community here in a new place. Perhaps you are surrounded by community or even COMMUNITIES on every side…….but I still want you to walk away from reading this with a specific thought and that is – God really means it when He says”don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves with other believers.” There is a reason why we are not “islands to ourselves”, we are meant to be part of community, to encourage others through community. So, if you have community, don’t take it forgranted, GIVE TO THAT COMMUNITY. If you don’t have community, I pray that God will open doors for you to find that community. We all need encouragement and fellowship and THAT can’t be ignored or taken for granted.

Faith and Courage,

Lori Lane